Introduction

Why Shaco? Basically, he kills with a smile and is a powerful weapon in the proper hands, he excels in these jobs more than any other champion, in my oppinion:

BackdooringCounter jungling*GanksJukes

His Backdooring skills by the mid game to the late game are quite impressive, when coupled with map awareness by his Jack In The Boxes, he can pretty much destroy a whole lane and still escape untouched.

*Though counter jungling is not MUCH viable in the current state of game, it is a good idea to do it when possible, since it can be sometimes really benefitial to have your opponent lose a few xp here and there.

Ganking with shaco is a completely instinctive movement for me right now, and it's possible to surprise enemies even during their ganks, by using Deceive as a surprise defense mechanism to your allies, who can join the fray and get a free kill.

Lastly, we have his jukes, which are FAR from normal. Trust me, if your enemy summoners don't have an Oracle's Elixir you can pretty much juke a completely warded jungle with 1hp left.

Now, please note that I have 3 builds shown there, they are for the specific maps (in the order they're shown from left to right):

The Twisted Treeline - Summoner's Rift - The Crystal Scar

On all of the guides, situational / optional items are pretty much the same, so you might just skip from one section directly to another.

Now enough of this chapter, please continue your reading.

Pros / Cons

PLEASE NOTE!!

Though Shaco is a very very tricky character, he's no immortal being, so please, though I mentioned he is a godlike juker already, he cant simply walk through five enemy champions and just leave with that trollface. So, take in consideration that though this is helpful, you're not always going to be able to juke any enemy champion.

Shaco is a pretty balanced character for all of the maps, yet he isnt immortal on any. Sometimes, though, death IS inevitable, but if you're stuck in 1v5 because you went to backdooring, I can only say that I'm sorry, because not only it's easy to notice an all mia, but you could also lay down a few Jack In The Boxes to actually help your escape or to cripple an enemy champion coming to gank if placed on the nearest route to where you are.

Runes

This rune setup is quite nice for all of the game modes, only having a difference in Dominion, where I also use /lvl Seals for armor, as the scaling goes faster (you usually play a game in dominion and come to a level where the bonuses are higher than flat runes).

+ / +
AD Marks and quints make the damage from Two-Shiv Poison well as your basic attacks get higher. You can also run ArPen quints and marks or mix them up, they all work quite well.

/ greater seal of defense
Armor from seals allow me to take less damage from AD carries and a few assassins, as well as reducing damage from minions and jungle on classic mode. If you're new to Shaco, it's also possible to run mana regen seals, since you should be using your skills whenever it seems like a good idea, until you have the instincts to know when is the time to Deceive in or lay down a Jack In The Box

Magic resist/lvl glyphs help a LOT when you face an enemy team with AP carries, this will reduce their overall damage by the mid game, and will allow you to simply mow them down with ease. It's also a good idea to run CDR glyphs, as they help you a lot by the early-mid game, which is where shaco dominates enemy teams.

Further on the Offensive tree, Weapon Expertise makes sure that even when tanks try to counter me I still deal a significant damage despite their armor. On the same tier, I also get my extra critical chance from Deadliness and extra critical damage from Lethality , it's upgrade.

This is where the builds begin to differ, I take defensive masteries for Dominion, since surviving that one or two hits from this or that champion can sometimes result in infinite chases throughout the map, saving my teamates time enough to gank the chaser or capture a point as I run.

For Twisted Treeline, whenever I find myself dead, I find myself useless, therefore, Good Hands pretty much makes my respawn timer be less game-breaking. Also, as you can see, I get a Wriggles' Lantern, so the extra 5% vision range on my free ward is really appreciated. The one second faster Recall is a plausible choice, if you come to think that you must stay the least time in the spawn pool as possible, and rather, be in absolute movement for us much time as possible.

Lastly, I run 23 / 0 / 7 on Summoner's rift, I do not take Sunder here, because the game usually lasts longer, so it's a better idea not to take 6 ArPen, which will fall to a very little ammount by the late game.

Summoner Spells

Balance is the key to perfection

My Favorite picks

Ghost - Amazing spell, allows you to outrun many other champions, as well as helping a lot on jukes. It's not a must, but it's a very good idea.

Exhaust - A very heavy slow, will allow for many kills by mid-late game, and will save you from melee chasers on early game. Same thing with ghost, pretty much, but this one is more offensive based, as it allows you to kill targets easier than you would with ghost.

Ignite - Your free "last hit" on enemy champions, this spell allows you to DoT any enemy to death, as well as reducing their healing effects, quite effective against HoT champions or champions with high lifesteal / spellvamp.

Begginer Shaco

These are spells you shouldn't get used to, but that will prove useful on your early gameplay as shaco.

Flash - A second Deceive, just in case you forgot to save your precious little escape, you have this one! Avoid using this as a double-blink, it WILL be bad for your gameplay.

Clarity - This is a good spell if you feel like you're being mana hungry, it's likely that you won't need it by the time you know what you're doing, and this cripples your learning curve a lot, as you'd always be counting with that extra mana to kill an enemy, which you shouldn't.

Heal - Will save you for overextending into turret range and ganking people you shouldn't, this spell is the actual "best" training spell, it's the one which you'll use the most, but the one that you should avoid the most too.

Don't...

Promote - While offering great lane power, it is useless since I do not cover laning in this guide, period, full stop, or whatever suits you. The guide for Twisted Treeline is meant to cover laning up until lvl 3, which is when you constantly gank both lanes

Smite* - Why are you killing jungle mobs for living on twisted treeline? Or why are you laning on Dominion?

Revive - Not going to say it's a noob spell, because it isn't, this spell is very rewarding when used by the late game, it's worthless for dominion, though, as you'd cast it at most, 3 times on an average-timed game.

Clairvoyance - Wow this is THE spell to intercept ganks... It's only a shame that you're not a support character :< I'd totally love this, but I know my priorities, I must kill my enemies before they kill my team, not check their movement before they gank... If possible, always have a teammate or two with it.

Teleport - You're jungling when you're in Summoner's rift, so that spell is only viable if you box somewhere, go b to get items / healing, and teleport back to your box, which you should avoid doing, sice it's a waste of 5 min cooldown. On twisted treeline, you can box somewhere you want to backdoor in the next minute, but it's not a good idea, as the map itself is small enough for you not to need it. Lastly, it's disabled on Dominion mode

NOTE ON SMITE* - This isn't applied to my 2nd build, which focuses on jungling, therefore you MUST pick smite.

Items - The Twisted Treeline

This map REQUIRES wards and ganks for a victory, and the team that covers any or both of these WILL have the upper hand.

*Note that you will spend some of your time on lanes during this game mode, but you should only get exp enough to hit lvl 3 and then begin your roaming.

The Twisted Treeline:

+ Pros

- EPIC jukes when deceiving through walls

- Using the clone to initiate may net you many kills when done properly

- Your ganks by lvl 4 ~ 5 will be deadly*

- Dragon doesn't scare you :D

- Cons

- Is very reliant on teamwork for ganks to work properly*

- Requires a very frequent last hitting

Reccomended Build

Wriggle's Lantern - Your best friend until the post-late game (in TT the game phases are hard to measure, since it's shorter, but sometimes you get to one hour matches, which are far more than only late game), if you hit about 40 ~ 50 mins in game, SELL THIS for a better item, I'm serious, it really falls of by the mid-to-late game. I grade this item as 9/10 here, because you simply can't give it's early stats away OR not use the wards.

Berserker's Greaves - Since the map itself doesn't require much movement, the bonus attack speed helps a lot on your early roaming. Rated 10 / 10 as you can't possibly ask for anything else on that price.

Infinity Edge - Deceive's best friend :D. The grade of this item carries a single drawback, the PRICE... Yeah, you basically get your B.F. Sword and it's pretty much game done by the time you get to think on buying the Infinity Edge, so I grade it as pretty much a 7 / 10. Only buy this item if you're getting really fed or the enemy team contains too many squishy targets.

Frozen Mallet - A very good item on shaco, allows you to get more tanky as well as giving you an absolute 40% slow. Rated 8 / 10, since it provides only average utility for it's cost, as well as requiring a lot of time to build.

Zeke's Herald - This is a great item, before it's remake it was already good, but now it's just even better. The truth is: this item SYNERGES WITH SHACO so well, that I can't even stress it out enough. Think of this: -Cooldown reduction, attack speed and lifesteal- it's VERY good, and on shaco, having that in a single item is just profit. If it wasn't enough, it also grants you a small extra hp! This item gets you a bit of everything you need, (resembling somehow, Trinity force, except for the sheen proc) and gets a good 8 / 10.

Youmuu's Ghostblade will ensure a safe and easy kill on many pesky runners, espcially when coupled with Two-Shiv Poison's slow, allowing you to pick easy kills when an enemy overextends too much.

Phantom Dancer - It gets a high 9 / 10 grade, but that's for the cost effectiveness of this item. Once you have this, you're going to outdo many champions, both in movement speed and in battle, specially since the extra attack speed and critical chance make it a solid choice against other AD champions.

Items - Summoner's Rift

This map REQUIRES you to jungle. Not only it's not worth laning with shaco, but it's also a lot better to jungle him:

Jungle Shaco VS Lane Shaco

Jungling

+ Pros
+ Shaco clears camps with average speed while still having enough hp to gank
+ Your ganks ALWAYS net a freekill if the enemy is overpushing.
+ Counter jungling is a piece of cake.
+ Your build includes a free ward from Wriggle's Lantern
+ You can help your teammates get buffs.

- Cons
- Might face a few better junglers who can outdo you.
- Creates a volatile lane in case the enemy team doesn't have a jungler.

Laning

+ Pros
+ You don't get your hands dirty in order to level up.
+ Laning provides more farm than the jungle.

- Cons
- You will be denied.
- You won't be ganking.
- A build with Wriggle's Lantern would be a waste of it's passive.
- Your early game will suck.
- Your mid game will suck.
- Your late game will suck.
- You won't be able to give buffs to your team.

As you can see, laning has too many disadvantages. And worse, shaco cannot make use of the farm if he gets denied every time he walks towards a minion.

- Can be overrated (at the point of your teammates saying gg in your first death, yes I went through it)

Recommended build

Wriggle's Lantern - Your best friend until the mid-to-late game, if you hit about 40 ~ 50 mins in game, SELL THIS for a better item, I'm serious, it really falls off. I grade this item as 9/10 here, because you simply can't give it's early stats away OR not use the wards.

Boots of Mobility - These allow you to gank lanes like there's no tomorrow, and will speed your jungling, a LOT. They're graded 8 / 10, since they lose the bonus when engaging enemies in battle.

Phantom Dancer - It gets a high 9 / 10 grade, but that's for the cost effectiveness of this item. Once you have this, you're going to outdo many champions, both in movement speed and in battle, specially since the extra attack speed and critical chance make it a solid choice against other AD champions.

Trinity Force - This item is pretty much for those times where both teams suck and someone has to become godlike, it's VERY VERY VERY costy, and sometimes it's not even worth the price, but know your enemies and see wether getting it would be a good idea or not. I'm not a fan of this item, since it's hard to get it done before the game actually ends, I'm just listing it since it may cause or not, a gambreak, 7 / 10.

Infinity Edge - Deceive's best friend :D. The grade of this item carries a single drawback, the PRICE... yeah, You Basically get your B. F. Sword and it's pretty much game done by the time you get to think on buying the Infinity Edge, so I grade it as pretty much a 7 / 10. Only buy this item if you're getting really fed or the enemy team contains too many squishy targets.

Guardian Angel - This is a very good item, with an even better passive, it instantly gets 9 / 10 because it's cost effective and will help you so much on backdooring and escaping that it becomes an overkill.

Zeke's Herald - This is a great item, before it's remake it was already good, but now it's just even better. The truth is: this item SYNERGES WITH SHACO so well, that I can't even stress it out enough. Think of this: -Cooldown reduction, attack speed and lifesteal- it's VERY good, and on shaco, having that in a single item is just profit. If it wasn't enough, it also grants you a small extra hp! This item gets you a bit of everything you need, (resembling somehow, Trinity force, except for the sheen proc) and gets a good 8 / 10.

Items - The Crystal Scar

On Dominion, you try to get many capture points as you can, recalling ONLY when and if you die, OR in case your hp gets dangerously low ( maybe < 20% ). then you should recall for healing purposes, but do not recall for mana regeneration, as you're likely to win many skirmishes with your basic attacks and only few skills.

Core build

Berserker's Greaves - Attack speed and movement speed for that low 0.9k price? Yes, please! These boots are just BEAST, 25% attack speed is a lot for such a low price, when coupled with phantom dancer and the lightbringer, your attacks will be so fast you won't even believe it! Graded as 10/10 ABSOLUTELY, without any chance of lowering grade (unless you decide to go tanky DPS shaco, which I think a bad idea*).

Phantom Dancer - It gets a high 9 / 10 grade, but that's for the cost effectiveness of this item. Once you have this, you're going to outdo many champions, both in movement speed and in battle, specially since the extra attack speed and critical chance make it a solid choice against other AD champions.

Kitae's Bloodrazor - This item is from the AD + AS family, and is a lower-budget version of Madred's Bloodrazor, which means it melts any tank down. This item is a desperate shot, but will help you in case the enemy team begins to get tanky, with your actual attack speed, you're already godlike, adding this item's passive, you're an hp destruction machine. Graded as 9 / 10; since your inventory is built towards this item, it's a good idea to rush it when you're getting fed.

The Lightbringer - Ooooohh new AD + AS item :D let's test! *five minutes later* ZOMG I CAN NUKE PER HIT!!! First of all, I was shocked when I first used this item, because of how useless it's passive was xD but the bonus AD + AS it gives is one HELL of an impact if you come to think of it's price, so it gets a well-rounded 7 / 10, only losing a bit since it's passive isn't useful and later on, you can sell it to buy a The Black Cleaver anyway.

Zeke's Herald - This is a great item, before it's remake it was already good, but now it's just even better. The truth is: this item SYNERGES WITH SHACO so well, that I can't even stress it out enough. Think of this: -Cooldown reduction, attack speed and lifesteal- it's VERY good, and on shaco, having that in a single item is just profit. If it wasn't enough, it also grants you a small extra hp! This item gets you a bit of everything you need, (resembling somehow, Trinity force, except for the sheen proc) and gets a good 8 / 10.

Youmuu's Ghostblade - Pretty much a free Highlander, and it comes with a few perks along with the steriod on activation. After evaluating this item for long periods of time, I finally began to understand why of it's existance, and so, I now know that is can be really nice to catch those runners without having to blow deceive away, and instead, have a free movement and attack speed buff to own and pwn the runners, the grade is a fair 9/ 10, only losing score because it's possible to forget about it's active xD.

IMPORTANT NOTE* Tanky DPS shaco can be devastating with the durability he already has with his ridiculous skillset, but it makes him strike into the fray and hope that enemies don't gank him immediately, as he'd have a lower damage output than most, SPECIALLY AGAINST OTHER TANKY DPS, that will have a skillset that allows them to take damage as well as dealing some.

Situational Items / Optional Items

Setup list

Normal setup (Twisted Treeline):

Normal setup (Summoner's Rift):Zeke's herald

Normal setup (Dominion):Zeke's herald

Armor stacking enemies:

Tanky DPS Shaco:Zeke's Herald

AP Shaco: (NOT RECCOMENDED)*

Critical shaco: (NOT RECCOMENDED)*

AP heavy enemy team:

AD heavy enemy team:Zeke's herald

NOTE* These builds are reccomended because: AP Shaco requires a more skilled gameplay and completely loses the offensive benefit from Deceive, while critical shaco has a very low viability, as you won't have any chance against disables. if you see the enemy team has no stun / supress, feel free to try it, though.

Other Choices of Boots

Ionian Boots of Lucidity - Think you're going to spam deceive a lot? Buy this item if you're not used to playing shaco, as it might just save you here and there. It's grade is a 7 / 10, as you won't need it after you learn when to and when not to deceive into the fray.

Mercury's Treads - These can simply SAVE YOU from CCers like Annie, Sion, Shen and so on... These also give you 25 MR, nothing really THAT notable, but certainly something to considerate. A fair 8 / 10 since you real problem is late game where every single hit you take is about 30% of your health.

Berserker's Greaves (Summoner's Rift) - These boots will grant you extra jungle speed, but you won't be able to fly your way throughout the map, which is bad, since you need to be constantly ganking or counter jungling your opponent rather than winning a few 1v1 skirmishes, so they're graded 7 / 10.

Boots of Mobility (Twisted Treeline) - A very bad idea, these boots will not have much effectiveness, as you're already very mobile, and the map is so small that you'll benefit from it's extra movement speed quite little... Graded 5 / 10

Boots of Mobility (Dominion) - These boost your speed to a point where you can reach the other side of the map in a matter of moments, making it easy to capture points and escaping (mostly to cripple an enemy team who's focusing on a single point) they're graded 8 / 10, as you're likely to need something else than only movement if you are to steal that many capture points.

Situationals / Optional items

Frozen Mallet (Summoner's Rift)- A very good item on shaco, allows you to get more tanky as well as giving you an absolute 40% slow. Rated 8 / 10, since it provides only average utility for it's cost, as well as requiring a lot of time to build.

Sanguine Blade (Dominion)- A fair 7 / 10... Graded a bit lower than I would normally do, since it can be costy to pay that 2,9k when 2 or 3 lower cost items could do you better. Even so, do not undererstimate this tool of mass destruction, as it's always possible to stay in a battle enough time to fully stack it.

Wit's End - This item was indeed, a good item, after looking at it with a different angle, it provides you a good on-hit effect and some magical resistance, which is always welcome against AP champions, so the grade is still7 / 10, but it is now an optional item, rather than a random other choice.

Executioner's Calling - This item is good, and when it comes to low-budget builds, it fits quite nicely. It's lifesteal and critical chance will help a lot against other AD characters, when coupled with Zeke's Herald, the ammount of lifesteal you get becomes hard to deal with. It's graded as 7 / 10 as it's passive isn't really nice, as well as occupying an item slot that could be used for any item with more utility rather than simply destroying enemy ADs.

The Black Cleaver - Enemy team isn't stacking armor? Goodbye Mr Lightbringer. Graded as 999 / 10 if compared to The Lightbringer, but oh meh on the face ¬¬, it's actual grade is 9 / 10, basically it's an improved Version of it's AD + AS cousin, except that this time, the passive is also helping out a lot :D (unless there's tanks, which is why a 9 / 10 is the actual grade :P).

Last Whisper - Enemy team is stacking armor? Goodbye Mr Lightbringer. Ok, at first this item was a meh on the face, but as time went on, I realised that whenever I had a full AD-based team composition, things would go pretty bad if something like Atma's or Sunfire cape began to show up, this is why The Last whisperer is the best bet for us!
It gets a double grade, since it can be either really useful or just 40 AD. Against Armor stackers = 8 / 10 (costy costy ¬¬). Against non-armor stackers = 3 / 10 (a low AD for the price, if you ask me).

Infinity Edge (Dominion) - Deceive's best friend :D. The grade of this item carries a single drawback, the PRICE... yeah, You Basically get your B. F. Sword and it's pretty much game done by the time you get to think on buying the Infinity Edge, so I grade it as pretty much a 7 / 10. Only buy this item if you're getting really fed or the enemy team contains too many squishy targets.

Trinity Force (Dominion) - This item is pretty much for those times where both teams suck and someone has to become godlike, it's VERY VERY VERY costy, and sometimes it's not even worth the price, but know your enemies and see wether getting it would be a good idea or not. I'm a little bit of a hater of this item, since it's hard to get it done before the game actually ends, I'm just listing it since it may cause or not, a gambreak, 7 / 10.

Thornmail - Enemy team is stacking ADPS? Goodbye Frozen mate... Serously? The grading on this item will be so situational it's not even funny. Cost effective but REALLY REALLY REALLY something to be careful of, I mean, omg, there will be time for you to get this, but it's either 2/ 10 (few AD team) or 9 / 10 (full AD team), really.

Force of Nature - Enemy team is stacking AP? Goodbye Frozen mate... Ok, this item can and should be bought a little more frequently, since it gives you a nice Health regen and move speed along with the MR, so the grade is 6 / 10 (few AP team) or 8 / 10 (full AP team).

Randuin's Omen - "WHAT THE HELL IS A TANK ITEM DOING HERE? ARE YOU ****ING TROLLING?!?!?" No, I'm not trolling at all... This item can be useful against teams with kiters, since it's passive may allow one or two clean escapes. Sadly, this is a REALLY expensive item, and honestly, it only has a meadiocre active. "Why are you even listing it then, you n00b?" Have you just read what I said about kiters? Anyway, I'm not saying that you MUST USE IT against kiters, im just stating that it MAY BE USEFUL in case you're diying every 5 Frost Shots from ashe. It's grade is low, because it's really really situational, so it gets a 5 / 10.

Other Items:

This section will list a few other choices, but somewhat "useless" for my way to build Shaco, or they simply can't help at all.

Guinsoo's Rageblade Good item? Yes, very AD and AP. Good for this build? Definitively not. The passive is only usefull when you have a low damage output and can't build much AD, which you can, if you play shaco properly. It's grade is 6 / 10, since you're not getting much damage from boxes or two-shiv, and you can always get better items.

Entropy (Dominion) - This item grants you a very good AD with a chance to slow, if you ever dreamed of a more offensive version of Frozen Mallet, this item is for you! It's active skill is also strong, having a source of true damage is always welcome, be sure to use this item whenever you start a basic attack fight. It's graded 8 / 10.

Manamune - Ah the Manamune, why did you have to even exist, to begin with? I'd pretty much LOVE this item, but seriously, you're NEVER going to be close to oom, unless you're spamming deceive to move around, which not only is stupid, but may leave you vulnerable to a gank or two during your walks in the fog of war. Nevertheless, 6 / 10.

Tiamat - X_X 3 / 10 If not lower... I only tested this item in my build once, it was a very bad idea... Though sometimes, this might just handle those situations where minions can be dangerous to have around ( they can pretty much OWN your capture point before you notice it).

Atma's Impaler - Xenasis told me to analyze it again, and after seeing the real power of this item, it's grade raised by a lot. Since I do not cover much of health items on my build, I'm giving it only 8 / 10 since it would be possible to reach 200 AD with a lot of tankyness when insert on the proper build, not mine though.

Ionic Spark - At first, I thought that this item would be THE GAMEBREAK, since HP + AS would be deadly, but how wrong I was xD. A 7 / 10 for this item is a relatively good grade, the main reason is because you may actually run into a few one or two people who escape you with 100 or so hp, just blast minions as you run and tadaa, there is your dead person :D.

Jungling

I'm just posting this here because I really have to make something clear:

Counter jungle as much as you can!

If you don't know how to counter jungle properly, your mid game will be very very harsh, since the enemy jungler might get a jump on you, so if you know that your opponent starts his jungle at blue, RUN and kill his golems before you get back, maybe smite his wraiths once in a while and make sure to take his buffs.

This is important because Shaco's MAIN reason for jungling is to cripple an enemy jungler enough for him to basically fail the whole mid-game and then try to get back on the late game, which is a very exhausting task for many characters.

I have a very random jungle route that includes only blue buff as a start, but you may then do whatever suits you, but my route is 80% of the times this: (cloth armor + hp pots x5)

Then the rest is your whole choice, I'd try to counter jungle if the enemy team has a rammus or Olaf, as you will be likely to kill them after lvl 3. Succesful coutner jungling means profit for you and trouble for the enemy team, and vice-versa. So, to sum it up: Reach lvl 3 and counter jungle them every single moment that you're not ganking.

DO NOT attempt to counter jungle good duelists, such as Xin Zhao, Lee Sin, Udyr, Shyvanaand Tryndamere, as they're likely to kill you before you can possibly deal much damage to them. It's better to just enter their jungle when they're off to gank a lane, and if you're close, try to catch them on their way back to their jungle, since they could be carrying a buff, and that would speed up your jungle while crippling theirs.

Here are some videos with other possible routes, I personally dislike jungling for too long, as shaco excels on ganks, pretty much.

Skills - Tips'n tricks

Passive - Backstab allows you to deal 20% extra damage when hitting opponents on their backs, this is lulz, you chase, you kill, if they try to run from you, they die faster xD which is so trololololol

Q - Deceive - This is THE skill... I'll make a section just to describe how many uses it has.

W - Jack In The Box - This is your only CC, though it is slightly hard to place it properly, you should have no problem with it. For example, when you can see that an enemy WILL engage you in melee combat, place it in the area yu will fight, SOMETIMES, it's better to wait and make sure to place it properly though, but it's risky to do that against Jax and Tryndamere, for example.

E - Two-Shiv Poison - Slow enemies per hit and an active ranged attack, this is really sweet against pesky Flashers / Ghosters... Normally, I'd max this outright, but in dominion, deceive will prove to have several uses here and there, and since the mana cost reduces as you level it, you won't risk going oom so soon.

R - Hallucinate - Clone yourself, AND deals a boom boom damage on enemy units upon death ;) use this as your last resort escape or your initial poke, taking in consideration wether you can or can't deal with a nuked enemy (It's possible to hurt a Graves with Hallucinate and kill him with your other three skills, though attempting to do that against a Singed is risky and should be avoided if he's fed)

Skill Synergy

In order to effectively use your skills, you must learn when is the most viable moment to do so, and well, it will sound a little bit rude, but not many Shacos know how to properly escape certain situations, for example:

1 - Your Hallucinate can be a lot more worth using BEFORE engaging than during the engage if you're up to dealing nuke damage with it, so you pop clone, send the clone to enemy champion, fake a retreat and once your clone is nearly dead (about to take it's last blow) jump in with Deceive and finish your victim after you twin explodes.

2 - Two-Shiv Poison has a fairly good range, but it isn't enough to hit someone over a wall or last hit through turret range, so you'd prefer to throw it moments before you think that your target would Flash / [Ghost]] / enter turret range, that way your projectile will overextend it's range and kill the victim ;) Also notice that using the active will disable the passive skill, therefore, AVOID using it to initiate a fight, as it will leave you helpless if the victim escapes. In fact, it's better to simply Deceive in, auto attack a lot and use the active to finish your target.

3 - Stacking Jack In The Box is not a bad idea, but i'd rather get more fear time than damage in most situations, so here's the deal with the skill: Place a single Jack In The Box and wait, the moment an enemy gets feared, start attacking and throw your Two-Shiv Poison, once Jack In The Box is available again, recast for one more fear, if it was already available after the first fear, INSTANTLY cast it if you think the enemy champion will be engaging you.

League's Nº1 juker

This clown is annoying... and HOW annoying he is.

First of all, chasing a Shaco with more movement speed than you is already a useless chase. Chasing a Shaco without CC is also a waste of your time.

Why?

Imagine the following situation:

You see a Shaco finish off Baron Nashor / Dragon with about 5% ~ 15% hp, your first thought is most likely: "Yay, freekill!"
STOP chasing him by the moment he gets out of your CC's range, I'm serious here, if you can't keep him in range to be slowed / snared / stunned / supressed, DO NOT bother chasing him.
If you do chase him, here's what will happen:
He will enter a brush, place a Jack In The Box, wait for you to get feared, Deceive through the nearest wall and spam "TROLOLOLOLOL" on the chat.

So... Are you willing to waste all that time just to get feared and possibly baited to a gank?

One important note on juking*

Shaco has a VERY low cooldown on his Deceive, so you'd rather let him stay alive if you're not sure about his last cast. On the other hand, if you DID see his last Deceive, feel free to try and take the kill.

Deceive

Deceive is IMO, one of the most overrated skills ever. No, honestly, people think that just because they can use Shaco's Deceive they're OP...

There was this shaco, he was "smart" enough to Deceive at me (I was playing Singed) near my turret and throw his shiv instantly, all I did was turn on Poison Trail and I flinged him to turret, flooding "Trolololololol" on the global chat :D.

Guys, please do me a favor, DO NOT chase Singed :D But rather use your clone to initiate on him (I know I said not to a little before, but that was in terms of basic nuking, here, we want to gank him and net a freekill outright). After your clone gets some of his poison, you only have to Deceive in and right click Singed a few times, then let your clone take turret hits while you move around and prepare yourself to dive in and finsh him with all you have.

I'd be happy to list more and more ways to kill specific champions, but you can be creative after you play a few games and/or practice with your friends. Moving on, Deceiving through walls is NO ART, and requires absolutely no skill, but rather, control. Which way do you deceive when a whole enemy team chases you, away from them, through the nearest wall or in the direction of their base?

Seriously? I've seen very good shaco players simply fail by trying to use walls and ending up deceiving in place, so they panic and just engage using Hallucinate for a last resort. Unless they had an Oracle's, that is stupid... Remember the part where you have stealth? Use it to your advantage, brush in if you failed to jump the wall and go recalling with no sweat (unless you know that you can backdoor and repeat this :D).

Basically, there's no tutorial on how to use Deceive properly, since it's a matter of staying calm and thinking as fast as you can. REMEMBER!! If you fail to deceive but they don't have an Oracle's, you're still in stealth!

Jack in the Box

Your enemies will fear you, literally. This is a very unique skill and should be placed properly.

If you're going to gank any lane, place a box in the nearest brush so that you have an escape route, and when killing dragon, place a box in the brush between you and the mid lane. then another one in the corner that leads you to the bottom lane. That grants you a few moments to escape if the enemies see you.

When fighting against strong enemy melees (Tanky DPS champions in general), try to place this skill on the ground as you fight, that will allow you to escape in case the enemy is too strong OR, make your victim fall faster, as it will have to deal with both yours and the boxes' damage.

Another use of this skill is for ganks, which you probably guseed already... Deceive in and have your free crit, place a box slightly behind your target and keep on attacking, if the enemy champion tries to run, they'll get shots from jack in the box, if they stay in place, they will also get shot :P allowing for an easy kill on MOST champions (ecept for: see the list above).

This is the skill that allows you to jungle, and should be maxed outright if you're playing on Summoner's Rift.

Two-shiv Poison

This skill has three basic uses:

Passive on-hit slow
Active nuke
Monster / Minion blind

When jungling, you should be able to make full use of this passive by attacking all of the minions on a camp, that way you might get hit less, but once you've hit them all, focus one down as it's better to completely negate a damage than relying on luck against many.

As for the slow, it's always better for you to auto attack someone and only throw your active once the target is about to die, or use the active to slow an enemy champion down for your allies to catch him / her.

This skill scales on both your AD and AP, but that doesn't mean you should build up AP. In fact, getting a trinity force is already a big help for your damage output on this skill, and further building up AP will just cripple you, enough to make your damage ouput suffer BADLY.

One trick with two-shiv poison is to cast it on a ranged enemy when running away or hitting an enemy melee with it as he follows you (unless that champion has good gap cloer and CC effects, like Renekton and Talon, in which case you'd throw it too). That will probably save your life a few times, but be careful not to endanger yourself when doing so.

Counters / Matchups

There are basically, three things that will help on bullying a Shaco, and they're all available to any character:

Oracle's Elixir - This lowers a lot of his juking potential, and alows you to safely walk through MOST of his boxes.

Sight Ward - Prevents his gamebreaking ganks, simply place them in the river brush on your lane, see him coming? GET OUT.

Vision Ward - You have already used the common ones and he still kills you? It's expensive, but it's better you without 125 gold than a psyclownpath with more 200 ~ 300 gold.

Basically, wards and stealth detection SHUTS YOU DOWN, and there's almost nothing you can do about it...

Akali - Yeah, go and gank her... the result is quite predictable, you and the laner will leave with lower hp, akali will leave alive... She's the example of a character you shold not mess with... if she gets you inside her stealth you HAVE to be careful, as she can deal a load of burst inside her Twilight Shroud. You can try to force a Jack In The Box inside it, but by the time it arms, you'll either be dead or Akali will be in safety.

Alistar + ally champion - Now the sh!t got serious, he will disable you and have his ally deal some real damage, and if his ally has ANY other CC skills, consider yourself dead, and you've been warned, DO NOT fight that minotaur when he's got backup.

Amumu - Much like Alistar, except he brings more damage to a 1v1, even if teammates he's rated as yellow, since juking his Bandage Toss ruins his chances on you, unless he casts his ultimate, which you can Deceive from afterwards.

Anivia - Brings some CC, deals a lot of damage, but two of her skills (including her ultimate) can easily be avoided, and you won't have to wait for cooldowns like bird will. She is RESISTANT to your ganks if you cast deceive to enter, though.

Annie - DO NOT GANK HER WHEN SHE IS ENERGIZED AND JUKE THAT TIBBERS!!! That solves the problem.

Ashe - Gank her during her laning, and if she is MIA, be careful not to get hit by an arrow, MAKE SURE that you deny her farming in case she is leveling Hawkshot first, as it is an easy win for her.

Blitzcrank + ally champion / turret - Is there ANYTHING between you both? If not, get out. Period.

Brand - Chill, he's reaaaaally not a big deal, two skillshots as his basic damage output? Deceive ftw! A bouncing ultimate that will go on your clone? Deceive ftw! He will be squishy and no natural escapes? Deceive ftw! And the basic fact that he is a laner already gives you the gank advantage with your Deceive ftw!

Caitlyn - She might give you some trouble, but she is absolutely no Irelia when it comes to beating shaco. Her basic thought is that you're a bad thing and should be eliminated, and her method is damage, TONS OF DAMAGE... When she stacks AS early on, get ready for a hardcore damage from auto attacks, and post-6, she will be able to snipe you when you're low, so be careful when ganking her lane.

Cassiopeia - She is not hard to deal with, but she can get quite badass after she gets fed enough... Turret diving her is a good idea as long as she's not lvl 6 yet, after that, DO NOT run into her when she's got any other source of damage to help her with you.

Cho' Gath - Dayum... This guy is that one case of a laner that you're like likely to succeed in ganking, but he's quite easy to deal with in the jungle. Watch out for his lvl 6, and do not engage him when low, NEVER EVER do it, and you'll be fine, remember to juke him with boxes in case you get low.

Corki
Dr. Mundo
Evelynn
Ezreal
Fiddlesticks - BADASS JUNGLER... To simply put it, this guy will kill you if you're seen inside his jungle, IT DOES NOT MATTER unless you're really a lot stronger, he will be casting fear and drain your hp all the way. Also, he can ulti you to death if you deceive over walls.

Fiora
Fizz
Galio
Gangplank
Garen - In more competitive terms, shaco is a lot harder to shut down when compared to Garen, but he still doesn't have a natural insta-win button against this demacian spin-boy. Basically, you delay your cast of Deceive in order to fool him into rushing Judgement on you, then you use a little of your stealth to null his damage output, in case he silenced you first, just move in unexpected directions, that should do enough.

Gragas
Graves
Heimerdinger
Hecarim
Irelia - She can be hard to deal with if she has a good laning. To avoid problem confronting this tanky blade miss you should gank her lane whenever you can, and ask your teammates for help, as she can easily deal with a single enemy while not having enough for a 1v2 or 1v3, CARE FOR HER PASSIVE!!! Ionian Fervor might crush your ideas of CCing her, so beware.

Janna
Jarvan IV
Jax - Unless he is REALLY stupid, you have nothing to do against him, except lure him to a gank (preferably with your AP carry if you're using the "standard" metagame) and Deceive away.

Karma
Karthus
Kassadin - The moment you see a Kassadin on the enemy team, go crazy and camp his lane, make sure he's not getting even minions, or else he WILL become a very good trouble on the late game. Kass has a faster and improved version of your troll skill once he hits lvl 6, as well as Silence to prevent you from using yours, he is NORMALLY seen as an AP caster, so don't hesitate on buying mercury threads to counter both his damage and his silence.

Katarina
Kayle
Kennen
Kog'maw
LeBlanc
Lee Sin
Leona - Tough... If you gank her lane, she will only CC you and block any attempt to kill her allies. Beware of her team usefulness, her ulti will also grant her an easy kill on you if you're not a careful Shaco.

Lulu
Lux
Malphite
Malzahar
Maokai - SO HARD to get away from... honestly, he's got instant CC, which can be troublesome for your ganks, and if he get's an oracle's, he can and WILL snipe you with Sappling Toss. DO NOT try to gank him if anyone else is MIA. Counter jungling him is not the greatest idea either by the early game, but when mid-to-early game breaks and/or you see him out of his jungle, run in and take his blue buff. It's hard to keep up with this tree when he has backup, so 1v1 him in order to avoid problems.

Master Yi
Miss Fortune
Mordekaiser
Morgana
Nasus - He's got a deadly combo in his hands... Heavy *** CC as well as tankyness... If this guy gets a good farm, you're simply screwed no matter what. Shut him down in lanes at ALL COSTS, may it be by ganking, helping on zoning him or pretty much anything will work.

Nautilus
Nidalee
Nocturne - The moment he casts his ultimate, the best thing you can do is lay down a box and wait, if he jumps on you, Use clone and brust him down as quick as you can, that will probablly show him how to respect you. Normally, facing Noc is a bad thing for shaco, so make sure to move carefully around the map whenever he's out there.

Nunu
Olaf
Orianna
Pantheon
Poppy
Rammus
Renekton
Riven - Not much of a big deal, but she will destroy you in case you don't play carefully. When low on health, pop your clone in order to confuse her ultimate, if possible (and if you are that much of a daredevil), engage her with a low hp clone and shut her down with your other skills.

Rumble
Ryze
Sejuani
Shaco - Whoever hits first wins when equally fed... Very tough, to be honest, Fighting another shaco NORMALLY means that one has to shut the other.

Shen - Not a big deal... you can ulti in case he goes Shadow Dash, your boxes will be a good way to block his counter jungling if he is. His only would-be problem is the fact that he will turn a few fights around with his own ultimate, but then again, by the time he reaches his ally, he/she/it is already dead.

Sion - Ranged stun + high hp if farmed... Can be a counter when he has more HP than you, SPECIALLY, when he has an Oracle's... As an AD Shaco, your best bet on beating that one bone behemoth is to place several traps on brush and call for a gank on him. YOU SHOULD NOT fight a Sion 1v1 when he's farmed.

Sivir
Skarner
Sona
Soraka
Swain
Talon
Taric
Teemo
Tristana
Trundle
Tryndamare - This barbarian is tough to crack, and when you do, he simply ults and you're forced to die... You're likely to find many good trynd players out there, so keeping your guard down is an awful idea when facing them. Shutting him down pre-6 is easy when he's on solo top, but not so much if he's jungling, since he's likely to get red buff frequently as well as gank several lanes, making him a mobile target that gets only stronger if let alone, do not let this snowballing happen, if you see him camping on top or mid, IMMEDIATELY ENGAGE.

Twisted Fate - Though he has Stealth detection, it's on a very very high cooldown against yours on stealth. Use that to your advantage and make him blow his ulti. AVOID messing with that Card master, though, he might just snipe you when you're least expecting.

Twitch
Udyr
Urgot
Vayne
Veigar
Viktor
Vladimir
Volibear
Warwick
Wukong
Xerath
Xin Zhao
Yorick
Ziggs
Zilean
Fast burst characters are dangerous, in general, AP carries will be a problem for you as well as tanks with hard CC. Anyone with an easy gap closer and CC will be able to shut you down, by the way, specially if they have an oracle's.

Thank You!

If you're someone who really helped me with this guide your name will be shown here! With, probably, a reason depending on what you did :)

Note that not everyone who upvoted will show up, but those who gave me ideas / reviewed my guide will, for sure :)

Thank you,

Jhoijhoi, for making an awesome and inspiring guide to making a guide! You can check it here: Jhoijhoi's guide on how to make a guide. We all love you Jai!Hawke, for advice on section orders!Xenasis, for reviewing my guide!NecroKhoria, for giving me some ideas on the items :)

League of Legends is a team based, real time strategy game set in a mythical world of swords & magic where epic battles decide the fate of mystical nations. Game players take on the role of a Summoner who conjures and controls champions to fight for them at the Institute of War. During game play champions gain experience and items to enhance their skills and abilities. How players develop and play their champions can be the difference between a crushing defeat or a glorious victory!